If you want to know New York, get to know its street cuisine. I learned it early. Growing up in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, I would get a lunch of two hot dogs in steam-soft rolls from the guy who set up his stainless-steel pushcart on the corner of 17th Street every morning, rain or shine, Saturdays and holidays, summer-fall-winter-spring.

Even after decades of travel, it's so fun to still be learning fun little factoids about the cultures we visit. It never ends! In Dresden, my German friend explained that the dough woven into a pattern in a pretzel represents the way our thumbs cross when we fold our hands in prayer.

In Germany there are bakeries on practically every corner. I lived in Stuttgart, a pretty big city in the south of Germany where I could see three bakeries just by looking out the window and swiveling my head slightly.

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day only rolls around once a year (though there's really never a reason not to eat one any other day of the year), but food holidays call for a mandatory inhalation of said food.

Even if dessert is not usually your jam, you know what it's like to have a sweets craving. The need for sweets is real and unavoidable, and it often hits when there isn't much time to be spent slaving over a soufflé.